iRiver S10 (2GB)

Miniature MP3 players are the stuff of a Lilliputian's dreams. In fact, the smaller, the more geek envy it would draw. The newest iPod Shuffle is like that. They drew more raves for their form factors than their features. But the iRiver S10 made waves when it was first announced due to the ingenious way it melded a screen and the D-Click system onto a 42 x 30 x 10.8mm-sized body.

Design
We can't help but allude to the iRiver U10 we reviewed last year. Both include the D-Click navigation system we were so enamoured with. It ranks right up there with the iPod Click Wheel in terms of MP3 player physical navigation. And in the small form factor S10 where player real estate is a precious commodity, the space-saving D-Click system presents an elegant solution.

The 1.15-inch screen sits atop a tilt table-like structure. The main playback controls for the S10 lie on the four edges of the screen which can be depressed. This cuts the need to allocate extra space for tiny buttons as seen in the side clutter of the iRiver N10, and allows greater maximisation of the player's front for a screen.

Unlike the display on the U10 which is viewed in either portrait or landscape mode, the S10 can do only portrait. The screen is bright for its size and, while it has three different brightness settings, it makes sense to use the lowest in the interest of power conservation since the S10 has a rated 8 hours of battery life only.

Navigation on the S10 maintains the same seamless organic flow of the U10. Instructions are clearly labelled for each direction on the display itself; generally, right clicks will lead the user deeper into the menu, while left ones bring one up a menu layer. Up and down clicks also serve to navigate within the menu layer. Colourful icons and animations improve the navigation experience.

Pressing and holding down the right side will serve up a contextual menu relevant to the highlighted feature, i.e. equaliser settings during music playback. Though all these finger pressing will smudge the screen with fingerprints, the large black border around the S10's display minimises the smears. iRiver did not bundle a cleaning cloth with the S10.

Other physical controls are the two volume buttons and a power button. There's an extra function to the volume buttons. Hold them both down and the S10 physical controls will be locked from accidental activation. And because the buttons are tiny, it wouldn't be easy to unlock them by mistake.

Despite its size, the S10 feels solid and weighty even with its plastic body. We didn't like the bundled earphones, however. Though the cutesy S10 deserves to be worn around the neck, the lanyard earphones lack the chic factor of the iRiver N10 ensemble. Unlike the N10, there isn't a clip to secure the earphones when not in use or an option to use the lanyard with the user's own earphones.

Features
Compared with the majority of ultra-small MP3 players, the S10 is certainly not short on features. By virtue of its screen, it has most of its mini brethren beat. With a display, the S10 can flaunt pictures (Bitmap only), tell time with a digital clock, enable lyric display, and generally make life a lot easier for the listener with a graphics user interface.

Unlike the U10, there're no gaming, video or Marcomedia Flash Lite support. This is just as well given the 1.15-inch display. In terms of audio tweaking, there's plenty: Nine preset equalisers, SRS and a five-band user-defined equaliser. It's odd that Bitmap is the only picture format supported. Again, taking into consideration the screen size, there's no thumbnail view, either.

Voice/FM recording and FM radio with 20 presets are included on the S10. Our unit is a UMS device, so it's all drag-and-drop for files. It would seem that including a mini-USB port would be taxing the S10's cargo space: Connectivity to the S10 is performed using a special USB-to-3.5mm adaptor instead. We noticed an extra data ring on the 3.5mm plug that probably helps with file transfers. Charging is also conducted through the adapter, so it would be a bad idea to lose it.

The bundled iRiver plus 3 is a very pretty content management software. Presentation is clean and spacey with a clear organisational hierarchy for file directories. Do note that there is no on-the-go playlist creation for the S10; the user will need the iRiver plus 3 to cobble one up.

Besides CD ripping, the iRiver plus 3 can also be used to transfer pictures and eBooks. However, we were uncomfortable with the fact that it supports only CD ripping to either the WMA or OGG Vorbis format. There's no support for the popular MP3 format in sight.

Performance
The S10 is a hardy performer. We tested transfer rates using 240MB of assorted MP3 files and found the S10 to be pretty quick at 3.1MB per second regardless of whether we used drag-and-drop or the iRiver plus 3 program.

FM auto scanning was quite disappointing, however. Despite testing in three locations and verifying the results by switching to another pair of earphones (earphones act as FM antennas), the S10 missed most of the major radio stations. This was by far one of the worst results we've seen.

We tested battery life using 240MB of MP3 files played on a continuous loop at our test volume. The S10 beat its own rated time with a result of 8 hours 29 minutes, which was tremendous given its tiny size and colour screen.

We auditioned the S10 with Diana Krall's You are Getting to be a Habit with Me. Highs and mids were detailed with ample warmth. There was also plenty of presence in terms of bass. On Massive Attack's Angel, the low end was strong and boomy.

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